do most people design their websites from scratch or using a template. i've used a template such as joomla and worpress to create websites and its so simple and fast to build a website but you are restricted on how much you can customize with your site. im already familiar with html/css but im trying to learn php to make my sites a little more dynmaic but i feel its going to take years before i get comfortable. what is the best way to create/design a website, from scratch or template? thanks
Obviously, if you have unique needs and purposes behind a site, go with building from scratch. If you are building a farm of niche sites, it's faster to work from a template.
I don't know much about joomla because it's hard to learn and work with but with wordpress you can do what you want. If you have html and css skills then you can create templates without problems, for converting template to wordpress theme you may spend some weeks on learning wordpress codex. It wouldn't take you a lot of php knowledge, you will learn basic functions which you can use in your themes.
Depends on the needs. Content Management softwares like Joomla and Drupal are good to begin with. It is quick to setup and very simple and easy to use. However, complex modules need to be written based on the limitations of the CMS.